By the end of this week you should be able to:
- Identify waste in a process.
- Draw a basic value stream map.
These lecture notes will be written from the instructor’s Week 8 draft. The topics below are a working outline.
Planned topics
- 5S — A workplace organization method with five steps, Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain.
- Just-in-time — A production strategy that makes and delivers exactly what is needed, when it is needed, in the quantity needed.
- Kaizen — Japanese for continuous improvement; small, ongoing improvements made by everyone in an organization.
- Kanban — A visual signal, often a card or bin, that authorizes production or movement of material only when it is needed downstream.
- Lean manufacturing — A philosophy, derived from the Toyota Production System, that maximizes customer value by systematically eliminating waste.
- Muda — Japanese for waste; any activity that consumes resources without adding value for the customer.
- PDCA — The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle for iterative improvement, popularized by W. Edwards Deming.
- Root cause analysis — A structured method for finding the underlying cause of a problem, using tools such as the 5 Whys and fishbone diagrams.
- Value stream map — A diagram of all the material and information flows required to deliver a product, used to identify waste and plan improvements.